Advanced Micro Devices Corporation

Globalfoundries Inc.

Hung Duy Vo

Oikwan Tsang

Robert Alan Williams

Jeffrey Roy Dwork

Yatin Acharya

Yi Cheng

Boon-Aik Ang

Colin D Nayler

Chin-Wei Kate Liang

Dennis Lau

Zhen-Hua Liu

Phil Keller

A network interface system includes a memory system for managing data obtained via a system bus that supports split transactions. The memory system comprises a first memory for storing outgoing assembled data frames and associated control information prior to transfer of the outgoing data to the network, and an assembly memory that stores unassembled outgoing data from the bus. A memory control system stores the control information associated with pending bus read requests and also transfers outgoing data from the assembly memory to the first memory when all the outgoing data for a corresponding read request has been assembled.

Network interface with secondary data and packet information storage and memory control systems to accommodate out-of-order data processing and split transactions on a host system bus

A network node has multiple physical layer devices (PHYs), multiple media access controllers (MACs), and means for gathering information regarding the capabilities of other nodes on the network. The node capability information may be gathered using hardware or software, and may involve gathering information from data frames received by the node, and/or from capability and status announcement frames received by the node. The node capability information gathered and the node topology determined may be utilized in selecting one of the MACs as an active MAC for monitoring a network medium, and/or in selecting one of the PHYs as an active PHY for transmission of frames onto the network medium. The PHYs of the interface in an exemplary embodiment are able to transmit and receive data frames or packets which are in accordance with different home phoneline networking alliance (HPNA) specifications, for example, HPNA 1.0 and HPNA 2.0.

Method to select dynamically between MACs of network device depending on network topology

A physical layer transceiver of a home network station connected to a telephone medium has an architecture enabling adaptation of detection circuitry based on received network signals to enable reliable recovery of data signals. The physical layer transceiver includes an input amplifier that amplifies network signals according to one of 128 gain settings set by a receiver gain control signal. A signal conditioning circuit includes an envelope detector configured for outputting an envelope of the amplified received signal, and an energy detector configured for outputting an energy signal of the amplified received signals. The envelope signal and the energy signal are supplied to slicer threshold circuits, configured for outputting noise, peak, data event and energy event signals based on noise threshold, peak threshold, data transition threshold, and energy threshold signals, respectively. A digital controller controls the input amplifier gain and the threshold values, and adjusts the gain and threshold values based on the noise event signal and the peak event signal within an access ID (AID) interval. Hence, the receiver can be optimized on a per-packet basis for receiving network signals by adjusting the receiver portion during the AID preamble phase of the data packet. Gain control may also be used by the digital controller on the transmitter portion to selectively adjust the output gain for optimizing transmission to a destination home network station.

Physical layer transceiver architecture for a home network station connected to a telephone line medium

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Hung Duy Vo